It was a small gathering of fans and music industry bigwigs that gathered for a surprise performance from Metallica at New York City’s Webster Hall on Tuesday night, and by the time the band finished, they had performed 14 songs that took the group through their entire career, including a salute to their late bassist Cliff Burton, and a stunning performance of the newest single from their upcoming album “Hardwired…To Self Destruct”, “Moth Into Flame”.
After playing “Orion”, which is a Burton standard, singer James Hetfield pointed upward and said “30 years…We miss you Cliff”. The concert fell on the 30th anniversary of Burton’s death in Sweden when the band’s tour bus crashed.
Opening with “Breadfan”, the Metallica played for 100 minutes, and drummer Lars Ulrich hinted at a summer show in New Jersey which set tongues wagging that the band would be playing MetLife Stadium. Could a summer run of stadiums be their plan?